It is a great comfort to know God never leaves me. No matter what I hear and no matter who tries to dissuade me. He is with me in joy and He is with me in sorrow. He is with me in prosperity and He is with me in want and need. I wasn’t always aware of this truth. I was first saved in front of a Billy Graham television crusade when I was 18. I promptly went back to college and pretty much forgot my commitment. Thankfully God remembered.

I eventually made ...

For those who know God, believing in His Son Jesus is easy. For those who do not know and do not trust God, refusing to believe in Jesus is also easy. There is a goodness of life, a peace, and a sheer joy that comes from accepting the Son of God and following Him as closely as we can. Once you know His peace, His love, and His tireless care and protection, life without Jesus feels like hell must feel.

I lived through my season of doubts. I can remember an ...

I lived many years only talking to God when I was in trouble or in need. I had no idea how selfish and pointless such prayers were. God wants prayers with depth, volume, and power. He wants our prayers to be for others, for worlds beyond our own small world. Self-centered requests are not where God wants a mature prayer life to land. We’re grown up and our prayer life should reflect that. The Bible encourages us to pray for political leaders, world peace, ...

It is a source of joy to know God strides ahead of us, moving obstacles, performing miracles, clearing the path so we can follow His plan for our lives. The problems arise when we jump off the path, either left or right, and follow our own desires. There we stumble into the brambles, the pitfalls, and the traps. Follow God. Avoid the dreaded delays and walls.

For nonbelievers, the idea that there is a God who loves us, watches over us, and moves obstacles ...

Not everyone marches to the same beat. It is a blessing to be free to practice your beliefs and follow what you know to be best in your life. Like Daniel, we should have the strength to defend our truths and refuse to follow the masses. When we live according to the Word, we won’t need to debate with people. Our steadfast faith and peace should convict anyone who tries to lure us into disagreements.

Prayer

Lord God, I will always demonstrate Your kind of ...

The greatest movement of God will be when He unifies all denominations and people in the Body of Christ. When He convinces His children to lay aside differences and embrace their shared love for Jesus, there will be NO enemy with the power to stand against the Church.

Prayer

Father, we ask for tender vision, a willingness to see the similarities in all Christian faiths. United, the many churches could touch thousands with love. Help us mature to see every ...

Habitual prayer and devotion time can lead to great change. I remember a time I offered to pray for the world. I sent letters to cities all over the earth offering to pray for people, and I received hundreds of responses. When we pray fervently for others, there is a moment where we get closer to God than we’ve ever imagined—a brief encounter that affirms God’s reality and closeness.

Prayer

God, I love when I spend time with You. I imagine I can climb ...

The Bible is clear: we are called to love others as we love ourselves. Young adulthood is full of competition, races, job searches, grades, and relationships. God’s plan is different. He expects us to pray for our competition, encourage them, and help them achieve their dreams. Life is not a limited pie; God rewards faith and righteousness.

Prayer

Lord God, I am grateful Your design for life makes room for compassion and mercy. Rivalry, especially when it ...

Today, in your quiet time, sit down and invite God to join you. Listen for Him. Feel Him. There is a warmth, a peace, that enters every room He is in. There is always time to ask what He wants, today it is enough to feel love and calm surround you.

It is in our trials and testing we develop deeper faith and absolute confidence in God. It is easy to be a Christian when everything is going smoothly in life and blessings are abundant. It is when the storms come that we can run from God and turn to ourselves for the answers. Stop. Turn around. Hit your knees. God is waiting for your return.

We are repeatedly shown that faith, trust and a focus on God will keep us safe through life’s journey. We do not look left or right. Because left and right are where the world, the lure, the pull, and the attractive trouble lie. Straight ahead is wisdom. A God focus preserves our destiny and our sweet relationship with our Father and His tender love for us.

There is no denying the world is seductive. Fashion, cars, huge and lovely homes, technology that ...

Fear sets a predictable series of events in motion. We begin to think we have to control everything. To be safe. To survive. We stop trusting God with our lives and put ourselves in charge of even the smallest details. We lose sleep. We overthink. Peace flees. No one can control everything. But we try. God watches. He waits. While we struggle, He thunders through the universe just as He did in the times when Jesus walked the earth. He cares. He always ...

Joy is a choice. No matter what is going on in our lives, we are to “count it all joy.” Success is not judged by the moment. Neither is joy. We know we have a loving Father God who longs to bless us. He also longs to train us in His wisdom. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is always with us, training us, loving us and bringing us through every challenge.

Many years ago, during Praise and Worship at church, I saw a way to ...

Our true worth is often reflected from God’s eyes. He created us with our talents and an ability to love and change the world. Measuring our value against other’s gifts and talents is a sure way to cheapen ourselves and make our earthly journey even more difficult. We are perfect in God’s eyes, growing and learning but perfect. We should never argue with Him about that.

People waste a lot of time trying to impress others and even to masquerade as someone ...

There is something empowering and faith building when we understand God’s plan for the world, His timing. What feels like forever is a moment in His view. But His words, His promises, His plan will always come to fruition. When we watch the world rebel and mock Him, when sin seems to prevail everywhere, we know God will not be mocked. He will move and He will always always always keep His word.

I imagine at one time or another, every Christian has ...

I have always loved the story of David and Goliath. David knew he could defeat this sacrilegious enemy because he had killed a lion and a bear while shepherding flocks! We all have lions and bears in our past, moments where we’ve had to dig deep, found God-given strength and achieved more than we thought we could. When we face adversity, when we are challenged to do better, we need to remember where and what we have been with God in the past and our ...

I have been praying intentionally every day for quite some time now. Years. I use a list because it is easy to forget promised prayers or important issues. Some days I just pray the list. There are other days, special days, when I catch fire or maybe God catches fire in me. Then I am feeling empathy, compassion, or passion for the world. I feel God. I hear prompts from Him, people to see or call. Prayer occasionally is a two way encounter and that can be ...

Lord, we pray we will abandon critical thinking and return to loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. We pray we will grant others the same grace and mercy You give. Outrage can take a physical toll on our bodies. It also encourages judgement and a critical spirit. Once we decide God has whispered all the answers of the universe into our ear, we become something of an enemy of the people. It is challenging to realize we are to view others as God views ...

A disciplined and intentional prayer life leads to more intimacy with the Father and makes our goal of following Jesus easier. We cannot be in a relationship with God if we only go to Him in a crisis. He is a daily Friend, a true Father and His closeness to us relies on our obedience. Talk to Him daily and watch your life change and improve

The power and impact of prayer life increase when we spend more time talking with God. Some people only pray when ...

It isn’t our best work for the Lord when we try to keep our prayers and ministry inside the church. Get out into the madness. Go to Walmart. Go to the park. Ask God to show you who needs a touch. Maybe buy the thing they had to discard by the magazines, afraid they wouldn’t have enough money. Hand it to them. While a lot of soliciting can be a scam…some isn’t. If God clearly tells you to give to them just do it. Trust God more than your own cynicism. ...

If we huddle in our churches, doing the “We four and No More” thing, if we stay away from the unwashed, the tax collectors and their friends, we will see the tax collectors and prostitutes sitting where we thought we would sit. They will be the sick who hear the message and repent. We will be the Pharisees who missed the point entirely. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. So simple. And yet easily missed in our daily lives. Better to get your hands ...

We learn, through faith and persistence, to know the voice and encouragement of the Holy Spirit. Once we recognize God’s Presence, we feel peace during moments of worry and fear. We can comprehend His meaning when we’re reading the Word. We hear His quiet reminders to reach out to someone with a word of hope or wisdom which they later say answered their prayers. To listen, respond and act on these promptings is to be in tune with God’s whisper into our lives....